Hima-Bulbul

Of late, my morning alarm is of a pair of red whiskered bulbuls, a few feet outside our window. They exactly start chirping a little after six every morning! I don’t know if I should call it ‘chirp’... it’s so distinct from other chirps. They make this sweet musical 3-note or 4-note sound like twee-twi-toooo or twi-ti-tu-toooo.....

As I said previously, my little niece Hima is also fascinated with birds now. Or she is fascinated about being fascinated like her atte! One morning I just walked down the road with her and showed her these bulbuls, and their distinct crest (which I told her was a ‘juttu’). She was, needless to say excited about a bird with a ‘juttu’ on its head.

She ran into the room as soon as we got back home and got a comb and a small rubber band. She made me tie her recently cut, short hair into a ‘juttu’. I could manage to bring together a little hair and tied it up for her. She looked into the mirror, jumped with joy and announced to everybody that she was now ‘Hima-bulbul’!